Author: Jeff Vanek

Acting classes—should you be taking them? I am. Just so you know, this isn’t something I have done a great deal of—acting or acting classes or film or theater. I am not counting the facades, personas and personalities I may or may not have affected throughout my life. I am also not counting times I[…]

I was contemplating myself the other day, my favorite subject, I am sorry to say. Go ahead and admit it, you do the same—contemplate yourself. You are just as infatuated and preoccupied with your own life as I am with mine—we all are. We are, after all, such interesting people. We all listen to station[…]

It’s Halloween today, and tonight costume-clad kids will roam neighborhoods attempting to acquire as much candy as they can. They will come to my door and my neighbor’s door with their jack-o-lantern shaped plastic buckets or ratty pillowcases and utter those magical words, “Trick or treat.” They will quickly leave once the candy has been distributed to hit up the next house for even more treats. For the most part, it is little kids with parents[…]

I am not a fan of installing toilets, although it’s easy enough to do. It’s just the thought of what goes into them that kind of grosses me out. You need a good seal on your toilet when you set it—believe me, I know firsthand what happens when you don’t. I picked up the wax ring needed to create the seal at the local[…]

Last week I wrote about the wisdom in minding the gap that exists between a thought and action. The focus was on the kind of thoughts that would lead you to questionable actions, things that if done wouldn’t be considered to be in your or another person’s best interests—lashing out verbally in anger to a loved one instead of taking a moment to rethink what[…]

How often have you witnessed someone do something absolutely stupid and asked yourself, “What were they thinking?” Or maybe you concluded that they just weren’t thinking at all. The reality is that we are always thinking—even when it might be hard to believe otherwise. Problems can arise when we cross the chasm that exists between our thoughts and our actions. We don’t always make that crossing so[…]

Relationships are important to success. According to studies, healthy relationships are also a HUGE factor in not just quality of life, but even in length of life. As a human being, our need to be connected to other people is bigger, and I mean bigger than the wall that Trump wants to build on our country’s[…]

What do writers do when they don’t have an idea to write about? What do runners do when they just don’t feel like running? What about the salesperson who doesn’t want to prospect? I guess that depends on a few things—like commitment and determination. Maybe vision as well. As one of my favorite writers, Steven Pressfield,[…]

I have been thinking about how much control I have in my search for success opposed to what I don’t have control over. For the most part, much to my chagrin, there is a great deal I can do. I say much to my chagrin because it means I have a degree of responsibility for[…]

My muse likes sugar. I like sugar also, which makes for a great partnership. Often when I sit down to tackle a particularly ambitious piece of writing, something that is going to keep me at my laptop for a couple of hours, it helps to dose up on sugar first. Sugar appeases the muse, jump starts my mind and gives me that boost[…]